Writer/director James Gunn made the announcement on his personal Facebook account. He acknowledged that this news is breaking a bit earlier than he had expected, as the title accidentally slipped out during the press day for Ant-Man this past weekend, but also noted that he was excited that some fans were actually able to guess what the name of the movie would be before anything was actually said. You can read his post below:

Yes, the official title of the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.Kevin Feige...

While this is a rather bland name - especially when there are so many other awesome possibilities from the comics that could have been used, it's also understandable how Marvel Studios and James Gunn ultimately decided that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for the title. It's clearly a reference to the mixtape that Chris Pratt's Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord carries around for the entire movie, which has the cute name "Awesome Mix Vol. 1", as well as the new mixtape that he unpackages at the end of the film.

With a release date on May 5, 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 is expected to go into production in the first half of next year. While it's been promised that the movie will include new characters that were not featured in the first movie, it's been promised that we will see the return of stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan and Sean Gunn. The next few months will surely be filled with tons of updates and news about the project, so be sure to stay tuned!